Reason vs Live

Alright, Camacho. One more question before I purchase Reason. Which is better? Reason or Live? Educationally discounted at Academic Superstore.com, they are the same price of $200. To me, Reason seems like the better buy. The demo felt really powerful.

Reason gives you internal synths to create sounds, effects to changte sounds, internal drum machines and basic type of sequencing. On the other hand, Live (which is very good) is really a sequencer, which makes it easier to trigger sounds in a live performance. This is a general comparison. A better argument would be Storm vs Reason as they address the same needs. Reason would be better, but also cost more money. I suggest you read some reviews on all three before spending any money.

1. One Live odes have have a demo.. and I think so does reason..
SO GO play with them and judge for youself...

2. Wow Im looking at lives site and it looks way more powerfull then Reason.
I think it has instruments built in but I can not get a demo to see and the web site has a crappy design that is hard to find specs on...

"Software Interfaces
Live hosts VST plug-ins and ReWire client applications. You can route audio from Reason, Rebirth, or Max/MSP into Live and process it with Live effects and VST plug-ins and then record the results to disk. As a ReWire client application, Live runs in tandem with Cubase, Nuendo, Logic, Digital Performer, and Sonar. Using Live's Render function, you can export your work as a new sample."

Ok so it seems that live is a top level sequencer made to be used on top of
Reason or VST plug ins etc.

Kind of like Cubase or logic etc...
Tho both of those come with a number of good virtual instruments these days.

3. So other options...
Cubase.
Logichttp://www.bitheadz.com/
Im being told these guys make good all in one MIDI apps
AKA Unity... etc

Live is a loop based music program, which is more for if you'd like to manipulate self recorded loops such as guitar riffs and mix with premade loops. All and all I'm not a loop based fan but Live is pretty powerfuful

Reason on the other hand is more traditional sequencer app with built built in soft samplers, soft synths and DSPs that are all performed in realtime.

Its pretty hard to compare the two but I'd recommend Reason for the person who wants to get into making music.

I have Reason and Live demos. I've had them since November actually. I thought many features were disabled in the demo and that's why I thought I couldn't make up my mind without using the full app first. I'll check out Storm. Darn, I wish Acid was on the Mac. Acid's a good loop based music app. In fact, it's very good AFAIK.

I recall a "Acid" wanna-be for the Mac. But I don't recall its name. Anyhow, I have used Groovemaker for some time. It has enough libraries of sounds and also allows external loops to be used. IK Multimedia, the dev is going to discontinue it and come out with a killer app to replace it later this year. I am holding on for that. To me, Groovemaker is one of the easiest ways to get a good soundtrack for a game with little fuss. Think of it like MixMan Studio in a way.

I also recall a Shareware-like app, which is like Reason, but again, I forgot its name. It has many cool modules. I wish I could remember its name.

BTW... Anyone remember "AudioFusion TWS" it was shareware and then its dev abandoned it. Such a shame as it had much promise.